FRUSTRATION,
depression, emotional upheaval and unbearable physical suffering and
mental trauma as well as physiological distress are often the reasons
why people commit suicide. In recent years, dowry-related violence,
spread of consumerism, rapid urbanisation and pressure to succeed have
all conspired to push up the suicide rate in India. In India, about
nine out of every 100,000 persons commit suicide every year as against
the global average of eight per 100,000. But what has surprised
sociologists and psychologists alike is that a highly literate and
socially advanced state like Kerala has an abnormally high rate of
suicides. What’s more, the number of children committing suicide in
the state has increased substantially over the years.

In mid -2000, Kerala
Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar pointed out that 34,523 persons committed
suicide in the state between 1995 and 1999. He also expressed his
horror at the growing trend of children committing suicide in the
state. An influx of petro-dollars sent by Keralites working in West
Asian countries, rapid urbanisation, growing unemployment along with a
lack of emotional outlet for the educated, seem to be the reasons for
the high suicide rate.

Psychologists are of view that adults generally commit suicide for socio
logical and economic reasons. In distinct contrast, the younger ones who
commit suicide go to the extreme of ending their lives simply because of
"emotional jerks". However, social psychologists hold parents
responsible for making their offering vulnerable to the attack of
"emotional fits".

For example, 11-year-old
Saumya of Mamalassery committed suicide by hanging herself using her
mother’s saree for the simple reason that she was scolded for
quarrelling with her younger sister. In yet another incident,
14-year-old Neetu of Kottayam committed suicide by consuming poison as
she was not allowed to watch TV. Similarly, a 24-year-old youth in the
harbour city of Kochi committed suicide by consuming an excessive dose
of sleeping pills because his parents refused to buy a car for him. Of
course, his well-to-do parents followed in his steps when they ended
their lives by hanging moments after their son was found dead.

According to Praveen Lal,
Head of the Psychiatry Department at Medical College at Trissur in
Central Kerala, the level of tolerance in the younger generation is
abysmally poor. They can neither take a "no" for an answer nor
are they mentally robust enough to take the emotional upheavals of life
in their stride. He feels that in today’s nuclear families children
are pampered by their parents more than they used to be earlier. No
wonder, they get frustrated easily. "While playing games at home,
their parents choose to get defeated by the child. But the same child
often loses games at school and is unable to handle failure", says
Lal.

Significantly, for every
successful suicide there are least four failed ones and many suicides
are camouflaged as natural deaths. A large number of suicides committed
by the newly-married brides who are physically tortured and
psychologically harassed for dowry, are often passed off as natural
deaths. In the rugged and mountainous region of Garhwal in the newly
constituted state of Uttaranchal, an increasing number of women unable
to bear the burden of running their families — in the absence of
menfolks who migrate to other parts of the country in search of
livelihood — have taken the path of suicide. In the Garhwal region, a
woman has to often fetch water, fodder and fuel wood by trudging a
distance of up to 5 km. In addition, she is required to till the field,
tend the cattle and take care of children and older members of the
family.

Another fact brought out
by the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) shows that after
tuberculosis, suicide is the main killer among women, overtaking malaria
and cancer. Severe and at times unbearable depression, physical and
mental stress, mostly on account of the family members’ attitude,
force women to commit suicide. Suicides have been recorded as the major
killer of women in the age group of 15-44 years. Interestingly, till
1984, suicides did not even figure in the top ten causes of female
mortality. However, since mid-1980s suicide has become a significant
factor in the death of an ever-increasing number of women in the
reproductive age group.

Psychiatrists say that
women’s mental health problems are overlooked, owing to gender
insensitivity and there is no recognition of the fact that women suffer
mainly from depression and anxiety on account of poverty, alcoholism of
their husbands and waywardness of their offspring.